The Economic Development Department will try to use pedal-power to unlock the potential of a burgeoning East Austin corridor. The department has decreed Saturday, March 31, to be Bike to Manor Road Day, an event designed to highlight the street’s relative bicycle and pedestrian friendliness and bring attention to the shops and restaurants along Manor. […]
Caleb Pritchard
Posted inTransportation
Council positioned to delay corridor program decision
City Council appears all but certain to postpone a scheduled vote on Thursday on the draft Corridor Construction Program, the highly ambitious blueprint for spending an unprecedented amount of bond money in a particularly condensed time frame. During Tuesday’s work session, several members expressed their desire to hold off on the decision, a sentiment that […]
Posted inWhispers
Private sector flocks to county’s latest courthouse proposal
Travis County’s search for a private partner in the latest iteration of its quest to build a new civil courthouse has apparently drawn some fairly robust interest. Senior planner Mark Gilbert told the Commissioners Court on Tuesday that 65 people showed up to a recent industry forum hosted by the county to answer questions about […]
Posted inWhispers
B-cycle rolls up big numbers during SXSW
Austin B-cycle broke a new record during South by Southwest by shouldering 23,526 trips across Central Austin during the 10-day festival. That was nearly a 50 percent increase compared to last year’s festival (which saw a fair share of rain and, briefly, the appearance of rogue dockless bike-sharing companies) and 10 percent higher than the […]
Posted inWhispers
University Area Partners comes out against changes along the Drag
The president of the University Area Partners is urging her members to get in touch with City Council members over elements of the draft Corridor Construction Program that she suggested could take away car lanes and create bottlenecks around the stretch of Guadalupe Street known as the Drag. In an email obtained by the Austin […]
Posted inPremium Types
TipSheet: Travis County, 3.20.18
The Travis County Commissioners Court meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday. In the interest of space, we’ve decided not to post the entire agenda here. The County Clerk’s office hosts a copy at its website. 9. Receive update from the Jail Population Monitoring Group. (Commissioners Daugherty & Gómez) Monitor’s Take: Earlier this month, activists demonstrated just […]
Posted inTransportation
City defends unusual sidewalk design
A short stretch of zigzagging sidewalk in downtown Austin has wound the city’s Public Works Department into a small patch of controversy. The meandering path on West Seventh Street just before West Avenue first appeared last month and, according to the city, was laid by a contractor doing work on behalf of Cirrus Logic, which […]
Posted inWhispers
French-owned outfit hopes to derail Texas bullet train plan
The U.S. subsidiary of France’s state-owned railroad company says a high-speed rail plan that would link Dallas and Houston would kill any chance of ultra-fast trains ever servicing Austin. SNCF America announced this week that it has formally submitted to the Federal Railway Administration its objections to the Texas Central Rail project, the privately funded […]
Posted inEnvironment
Adler picks out top two climate change priorities at SXSW
When it comes to climate change, Mayor Steve Adler believes that cities are fundamentally ill-equipped to face the challenge. “You really do need the innovation that comes from outside of government to really act and scale in a material way,” Adler told a modest audience that attended a Tuesday morning South by Southwest panel titled […]
Posted inWhispers
No Commissioners Court today
It is our sad duty to report that Tuesday’s regular installment of the Travis County Commissioners Court has been called off this week due to South by Southwest. Ongoing storylines involving the search for a new courthouse property, the construction of a new women’s unit at the county jail, and whether or not to reinstate […]
Posted inTransit
UTC boosts bus lanes on the Drag
The Urban Transportation Commission last Wednesday boosted a grassroots call on City Council to spend part of 2016’s $720 million mobility bond package on dedicated bus lanes along the congested stretch of Guadalupe Street known as the Drag. The UTC voted 6-0 to recommend that Council include in the final Corridor Construction Program “dedicated right-of-way […]
Posted inBonds & Propositions
UTC calls on Council to fund east side urban trails
The Urban Transportation Commission on Wednesday night called on City Council to put potentially millions of dollars’ worth of of east side urban trail projects on the November ballot. The four projects would fill in gaps in the existing and proposed bicycle network and connect neighborhoods to parks, trails and other destinations that are currently […]